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Art of Kievan Rus of the Late 10Th – Mid-11Th Centuries

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Art of Kievan Rus of the Late 10Th – Mid-11Th Centuries ART OF KIEVAN RUS OF THE LATE 10TH – MID-11TH CENTURIES A.I. Komech ARCHITECTURE OF THE LATE 10TH – MID-11TH CENTURIES Construction of stone developed in Rus’ as a direct consequence The image of God-created cosmos as interpreted by St. of the adoption of Christianity. Together with the new religion Basil anticipated the expressive domed temples of the 6th century the great tradition of world art came to Rus’ from Byzantium. so exactly that it can be seen as the crucial reason behind the The appearance of major Russian cities – Kiev, Chernigov architects’ quests for such compositions. and Novgorod – transformed dramatically from the late 10th The very attempt to use the story of the Creation in order to the mid-11th century. Although most of their buildings were to understand the Christian temple concept is not far-fetched made almost entirely of wood, the new stone cathedrals, which or alien to historical material. Likening the artist to the Creator became the crucial dominants, with their stature and scale made pervaded Christian literature of the early centuries and was one the architectural landscape of Rus’ look like the historical land- of the most common testimonies to the existence of God. St. scapes of European and Mediterranean civilisations. Basil the Great began his description of the Creation with, “Shall Grand princes and their retinue commissioned the early we not rather stand around the vast and varied workshop of di- stone structures. Cathedrals and churches were not many, but vine creation and, carried back in mind to the times of old, shall their scale, mosaics and frescoes, sanctuary screens with icons and we not view all the order of creation?” 7 . sumptuous décor called for highly skilled architects, artists and Historians of Byzantine architecture point to the special sculptors. It was easy to find sundry hands among artisans of the “suspended” nature of Byzantine domed structures, in which Russian cities, but the senior masters, architects of the early architectural forms develop downwards, from top to bottom, the structures and managers were Byzantine (Greek, according to the special rhythm of curvilinear outline, “whirling motion” and the chroniclers), the carriers of tradition. This is attested by architec- desire to dematerialise voluminous shapes. St. Basil the Great tural forms and directly reported in an A.D. 989 chronicle saying wonderfully foresaw that expressiveness in his picture of the about the construction of the Tithe Church, or Church of the Creation. Dormition of the Mother of God, the first stone church to be The course of the Creation giving the conceptual and built in Kiev 1 . dynamic centre to the entire composition is quite characteristic The Tithe Church opened the history of architecture in this context. St. Theophilus of Antioch wrote that “Man, being in Kievan Rus’, however neither it nor the cathedrals which below, begins to build a home from the ground and cannot raise followed were in any way beginners’ work. They were master- it the way it should be nor make the roof before laying the foun- pieces of world architecture to be truly appreciated only from dation. The might of God is manifest in that He creates things the perspective of the millennium-old tradition of Antiquity and from nothing and the way He likes. Because ‘what is impossible the Byzantine world. Only on such terms can their deep roots with men is possible with God’. Therefore, the prophet says that in world artistic experience and their original features be under- He first made heaven, poised like a dome. ‘In the Beginning, the stood. That is why before turning directly to Kiev’s landmarks, prophet says, God made the Heaven.’ So the heaven, like a dome, it is necessary to make an overview of the artistic expertise that enclosed all matter that then looked like a mass. As to the form Byzantium offered Rus’ in the late 10th century. of them we also content ourselves with the language of the same By that time Byzantine art had already had centuries-long prophet, when praising God ‘that stretcheth out the heavens experience of ancient and Paleochristian culture development. as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in’ (Is It possessed an inexhaustible arsenal of architectural forms and 40.22)” 8 . In full agreement with the above St. Basil says, “… techniques processed through intense and purposeful interpre- as to the form of heaven we content ourselves with the language tation. Although far from being the only field of Byzantine con- of the same prophet, when praising God: Set up the heavens like struction efforts, church architecture predominated quantitatively a chamber” 9 . The association with the dome highlights the rea- and, more importantly, dictated the discursive and aesthetic son for the focus on vault architecture. meaning of the architectural language in general. The process Of no less interest is the striving after the compositional of steady selection honed up the canonical form of the church movement from top to bottom, which upsets the customary no- building which met the functional needs of liturgical rituals, their tions of art of Antiquity. The sense of volume having real weight symbolical meaning and, what was of paramount importance disappears and the firmament turns out to be weightless. “Upon to Byzantine liturgy, was visually expressive and artistically beau- the essence of the heavens we are contented with what Isaiah tiful. says, for, in simple language, he gives us sufficient idea of their All territories of the Byzantine Empire were involved in the nature, ‘The heaven was made like smoke,’ (Is 51.6), that is to say, evolutionary process, even though many of them retained their He created a subtle substance, without solidity or density, from peculiarity and distinction in religious life and artistic practice. which to form the heavens” 10 . Even the earth as a solid body rests In the early period after Emperor Constantine had converted upon itself, and the entire organism of the universe is sustained to Christianity, cathedrals and parish churches were built in the by the Creator’s power. “Let us then reply to ourselves, and let widespread form of basilicas - rectangular in plan, with a flat us reply to those who ask us upon what support this enormous ceiling and one nave or with rows of columns dividing the space mass rests, ‘In His hands are the ends of the earth.’ (Ps 95.4) It is into a nave and two to eight aisles 2 . Concurrently, central-plan a doctrine as infallible for our own information as profitable for our style structures – square, octagonal, round, cruciform or com- hearers.” 11 plex – became common as baptisteries or martyria. They had Another passage on the preponderance of circular move- adjoining rectangular or semicircular cells situated radially and ment in cosmos and its meaning is rich in content. “Do not then often vaulted or domed 3 . imagine, O man! that the visible world is without a beginning; The Holy Sepulchre Rotunda built by Emperor Constantine and because the celestial bodies move in a circular course, and 1. Collected Russian Chronicles I, a monumental mausoleum above the place of the drama and it is difficult for our senses to define the point where the circle (CRC), 1998, col. 106; CRC, 1997, col. 121; Abramovich, 1991, pp. triumph of God incarnate, made centrally planned tent-roofed begins, do not believe that bodies impelled by a circular move- 5-9. (and later domed) buildings forever universally attractive 4 . Al- ment are, from their nature, without a beginning. Without doubt 2. Krautheimer, 1986, pp. 39-92; ready in the 4th century the cross-in-square church of the Holy the circle (I mean the plane figure described by a single line) is Mango, 1985. Apostles in Constantinople brought together the idea of the beyond our perception, and it is impossible for us to find out 3. Grabar, 1943; Grabar, 1949, four basilicas and the dominant role of central space emerging where it begins or where it ends; but we ought not on this account pp. 95-104; Khatchatrian, 1982; Krautheimer, 1986, pp. 39-92. as a visually colossal embodiment of the Cross, the main Chris- to believe it to be without a beginning. Although we are not sen- 5 4. Krautheimer, 1986, pp. 73-5. tian symbol . sible of it, it really begins at some point where the draughtsman 5. Downey, 1951, pp. 53-80; In the 5th century the desire to wed the dome to the ba- has begun to draw it at a certain radius from the centre. Thus Mango, 1990, pp. 51-61; Krau- silica, the main type of a Christian temple, insistently carved its seeing that figures which move in a circle always return upon theimer, 1969, pp. 27-34; Vyssotsky, A., Osminskaya, way in the eastern part of the former Roman Empire, which themselves, without for a single instant interrupting the regularity 6. For more about the Basilica had Constantinople as its capital city. The Basilica B of Philippi of their course, do not vainly imagine to yourselves that the world B in Philippi see: Lemerle, 1945, p. in Greece, the church of Mayafarkin in Asia Minor and monas- has neither beginning nor end. ‘For the fashion of this world 415 et al.; Krautheimer, 1986, pp. 253–4; the church tery churches in Egypt were ambitious attempts at such synthesis passeth away’ (1 Cor 7.31) and ‘Heaven and earth shall pass 6 12 7. St. Basil the Great, 1845, . The spread of domed compositions was rooted in the age-old away’ (Mt 24.35)” . p. 62. idea of the dome as a symbol of cosmos and the after-world, sup- Noteworthy here is the strong focus on the rhythm of circu- plemented with the perception of the dome as the image of the lar movement that makes St.
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